Last month, Carl Icahn launched a proxy fight with Illumina, the world’s biggest genome sequencing company, pushing Illumina to unwind its purchase of Grail.
With this proxy fight, Mr. Icahn aligned himself with Lina Khan and the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), which has ruled against the $7.1 billion deal. The Grail acquisition is one where Mr. Icahn has made one of his rare mistakes and, perhaps without realizing it, has taken sides with Ms. Khan in her bid to rewrite antitrust law. Other investors have been more supportive, calling the Grail acquisition a "natural extension" of Illumina’s technology and deeming it worth pursuing.
